Page 294 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

274 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT

a few decades this resulted in chaos. The early Eastern Creeds include "1.
EpistolaApostolorum. II. The Old Creed of Alexandria. m. The Shorter Creed
of the Egyptian Church Order. Iv. The Marcosian Creed. V. The Early Creed
of Africa, VI. The Profession of the 'Presbyters' at Smyma.'?" The earliest
of these is worth quoting for its shortness and simplicity:

Epistola Apostolorum
(Faith)
In God the Father Almighty;
In Jesus Christ, our Saviour;
And in the Spirit, the Holy, the Paraclete;
Holy Church;
Forgiveness of sinS. 28

Compare this to the highlyverbose Nicene Creed from the fourth century:

I believe in one God
the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
And of all things visible and invisible:
And in one LordJesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
Begotten of his Father
before all worlds,
God of God,
Light of Light,
Very God of very God,
Begotten, not made,
Being of one substance with the Father,
By whom all things were made:
Who for us men,
and for our salvation
came down from heaven (Gk. theheavens),
And was incarnate
by (Gk. of! the Holy Ghost
qf(Gk. and) the VIrgin Mary,
And was made man,
And was crucified also for us
under Pontius Pilate.
He(no and) suffered
and was buried,
And the third day he rose again

27 FJ. Badcock, TheHistory qf the Creeds, 2nd edition, London, 1938, p. 24.
28 ibid, p. 24.